Bexar eyes upgrades for magistration process

1of 2Bexar County could spend $4 million to renovate its space in the city-owned Frank D. Wing Municipal Court Building on South Frio Street. An analysis by the Council on State Governments Justice Center said that because of magistration bottlenecks, many defendants are not being adequately screened in accordance with state law.Photo: John W. Gonzalez, San Antonio Express-News

2of 2Photo: Harry Thomas

SAN ANTONIO — Bexar County may spend up to $4 million to improve its magistration center, armed with a new study that found that many detainees are released pending trial without assessment of their mental health issues and security risks.

Consider it a bargain.

Faced with crowding at the Bexar County Adult Detention Center four years ago, the county debated spending $73 million for another building that included a new magistration facility, but officials balked at the cost and instead emphasized jail diversion efforts.

Those programs helped bring the inmate population under control, but logistical problems remain in the magistration process, officials said.

A yearlong analysis by the Council on State Governments Justice Center, delivered to the Commissioners Court last week, said that because of magistration bottlenecks, many defendants are not being adequately screened in accordance with state law. The report urged changes to the physical arrangement of the facility to improve outcomes.

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“It's laid out in such a way that it doesn't maximize staff efficiency. That creates a total bottleneck in terms of how people are processed there, and how they move through the system,” said Tony Fabelo, research director for the center's Austin office.

A lack of screening “misses mentally ill defendants that may be better served under supervision,” his report warned.

It said the county's process “does not meet the spirit” of state law that calls for mental health screening at magistration. By law, defendants must be moved to jail intake if not evaluated within 18 hours, a deadline that's often missed.

The report cited national polls, conducted after recent mass shootings, that found that the public considers government officials negligent if they fail to “identify and treat mentally ill defendants early in the process.”

The study had the cooperation of judges, prosecutors, jailers, health and mental health officials and others. It was authorized in November 2012, underwritten by county and U.S. Justice Department funds.

County judicial services director Mike Lozito said the study, which included analysis of 70,000 documents, provides a “data-driven” look at current magistration procedures and “how can we build for the future.”

The county, which had allotted $4 million to launch the 2010-11 building proposal, now could use those funds to renovate its space in the city-owned Frank D. Wing Municipal Court Building on South Frio Street.

The county continues to consider costly, long-term plans to build its own facility near the jail on North Comal Street, officials said. But the $4 million available likely isn't adequate to develop a new county magistration facility in or near the jail, which is several blocks away from the existing facility. That's why the immediate focus is improving operations at the city-owned site, County Manager David Smith said.

“It is my experience that that ($4 million) wouldn't be anywhere near enough to build a separate, brand-new building,” Smith said.

“Furthermore, if it physically connects to our existing jail, that's going to add on more expenses” because of jail regulations.

Staying in the city building appears to be the most feasible option, he said, “although you still have transport expenses” to move defendants to the jail.

The scuttled plan for an all-new magistration facility near the jail “was so grandiose that we could have built another tower to the jail instead,” said Precinct 2 Commissioner Paul Elizondo, whose precinct includes the jail.

“It was incredibly expensive and impractical, so we decided to beef up what we have and study it further,” he said.

The question remains, “how much work that (city building) would really need and what would be the cost benefit to spend the money on that; or is it worth it to start building something for ourselves — tailor-made to what we need — from the ground up,” Elizondo said.

“Ideally, you'd locate everything on one campus.”

In the meantime, the assessment process will be improved to address concerns raised by the pretrial study, Elizondo said.

“It's complicated. If it had been easy, someone would have solved it a long time ago,” he said.

Fabelo, who previously analyzed the county's probation system and recently examined New York City's magistration process, said “one of the most important things that the justice system does is sort people out,” to determine whether those arrested should be freed to await trial or jailed. Currently, decisions are made largely on the alleged offense, officials said.

The study included a review of 40,000 first-time bookings in 2012, Fabelo said. Their re-arrest rates and criminal histories were analyzed, he said.

Of those, “you're missing about 21,000 of them that have gone through magistration without any mental health screening,” Fabelo said.

“The jail does a good job of screening and assessing” those sent there, he added. The concern is with those given pretrial freedom without assessments for mental health and security needs, he said.

“This is a significant problem, because if you don't address the needs of that population, all they're going to do is come back and cost you more later,” Fabelo said.

District Attorney Susan Reed agreed that assessments are essential.

“That's my ultimate goal, to figure out who it is we're dealing with. There are some that absolutely need to be locked up and some that don't, and some that need specialized services particularly in relation to addiction and mental illness,” Reed said.

“If that is identified early, we can then perhaps not see them again on another case.”